[ News Article ]
Dealing With Diversity On a World Stage
By Gina Passarella
October 18, 2006
The Legal Intelligencer
At PDLG Annual Lunch, Ex-Sen. Mitchell Widens the Scope of the Issue
The "freedom and opportunity" that is America "remains an aspiration" and is "not yet a reality," former U.S. Sen. George J. Mitchell told the few hundred people in attendance at the Philadelphia Diversity Law Group's annual luncheon yesterday.
Mitchell, chairman of the global board of DLA Piper, spoke at the event on the issue of diversity from a global perspective and expressed the increasing need in the 21st century for businesses to understand the importance of diversity.
The most important step in making diversity in the legal and business worlds a reality is by "instilling the attitude among business leaders . . . that diversity is not an act of charity, it is an act of self-interest," Mitchell said.
It was the 1947 signing of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, eventually producing the World Trade Organization, that began a dramatic increase in world trade as well as the move of companies and people across borders, he said.
"The need for diversity now exists on a global scale," Mitchell said.
Each country has its own history and culture, he said, that defines how it views diversity. With offices in 23 countries, Mitchell said DLA Piper has to push hard on the principle while being sensitive to the needs of different countries.
A former Maine senator and Democratic Senate majority leader, Mitchell skirted the edge of politics when he spoke on the world's view of the United States.
It is a reality, he said, that one out of five people are Muslim and one out of each of those is Arab.
"Our relation with them is at a low ebb," Mitchell said.
The United States is at its greatest power but its standing in the world community is at its lowest, he said. The country needs a greater understanding and greater tolerance of the world community and that means a greater use of diversity, Mitchell said.
From his time in the Balkans or working on the conflict in Northern Ireland, Mitchell said he has learned that the two keys to resolving any conflict are an understanding of a person's situation and economic growth through job creation.
People need hope, hope is created through opportunity, and opportunity comes through job openings, he said. Creating those opportunities will lead to an increase in diversity, he said.
Mitchell later told The Legal that the rest of the world is becoming a melting pot the way the United States has traditionally been viewed. With the European Union opening up borders, there are thousands of immigrants in those nations, he said, and they are all confronting the same problem with regard to diversity.
"It is a universal issue," he said, adding, however, that no one system can be used to improve diversity globally.
The system being used in Philadelphia is helping build relationships between corporations and local law firms, Sunoco Senior Vice President and General Counsel Michael Kuritzkes said at the luncheon yesterday, the group's annual fund-raising event.
Through the PDLG's 1L summer program, in-house counsel and law firms are working together to hire first-year law students for the summer. The 1L program began in 2003 and of the 16 program graduates from 2004, 11 are associates at PDLG-member firms, Kuritzkes said. The program has teamed up with eight local law schools to find students from disadvantaged backgrounds or from those backgrounds underrepresented in the Philadelphia bar.
"We think we're making a difference," he said.
Since the group's inception in 2001, the PDLG has been spearheaded by Duane Morris partner Nolan N. Atkinson, Jr., who has served as the chairman of the board.
He will be stepping down effective Jan. 1, at which point Dechert litigator Vernon L. Francis will take over. Francis has been serving as the chairman-elect.
Under Atkinson's leadership, the PDLG has grown from 12 members to around 30, but he said there is more to be done.
The law firm members are Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll, Blank Rome, Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney, Cozen O'Connor, Dechert, DLA Piper, Drinker Biddle & Reath, Duane Morris, Fox Rothschild, Klehr Harrison Harvey Branzburg & Ellers, Montgomery McCracken Walker & Rhoads, Morgan Lewis & Bockius, Pepper Hamilton, Post & Schell, Reed Smith, Saul Ewing, Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis, Stradley Ronon Stevens & Young, White & Williams and Wolf Block Schorr & Solis-Cohen.
Corporate members of the PDLG are ACE Group, Aramark Corp., AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals, Comcast, E.I. DuPont de Nemours & Co., FMC Corp., GlaxoSmithKline, Ikon Office Solutions, State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co., Sunoco and Temple University.
This article originally appeared in The Legal Intelligencer and is republished here with permission from law.com.